Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Sleep Positioners- Read This Warning

The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are urging parents and caregivers to stop using sleep positioners.

A sleep positioner is a product used to keep babies on their backs while sleeping. These products are marketed as an aid to help with food digestion and reflux, ease colic, and prevent flat head syndrome. Sleep positioners are also marketed as a way to help reduce the risk of Sudden Infant Death syndrome (SIDS) by keeping babies on their backs.

There have been more than 12 reports over the past 13 years of infants (between the ages of one and four months old) who have died when they suffocated in a sleep positioner. In some of these instances, the babies died when they became trapped between the sleep positioner and the side of the crib or bassinet.

"In most instances, these products provide no real benefit and the risk of harm when they are used is significantly greater," said FDA deputy commissioner Joshua Sharfstein.

Parents need to remember that the safest way to put a baby to sleep in a crib is for the crib to only have a mattress and a tight-fitting sheet. Also, babies should always be placed on their backs.

According to these organizations, parents should stop using sleep positioners or any device to hold an infant on his or her back or side for sleep. These are unnecessary and can pose a suffocation risk to your baby.

For more information on the CPSC and the FDA’s warning, please click here.

We at Pure and Honest Kids like to try to stay abreast on safety issues involving children's products. As we continue to learn more about this issue, we will share it with our readers.